18 FEBRUARY 2018

De La Hoya Schools Ruiz 10 Rounds

By Ron Valderrama: Diego De La Hoya (18-0, 9 KOs), faced Erik Ruiz (16-7-1, 6 KOs) as the main event from Tucson Thursday night at the Casino Del Sol. The super bantamweight bout was presented by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Showdown Promotions and was televised on ESPN.

In the opening rounds, the fight was fought at a fast pace. Ruiz displayed amazing speed and landed some hard shots on De La Hoya. But De La Hoya is a patient fighter, he began landing punches on Ruiz as the momentum began to shift. Round 6 was a good round, hard to score due to the tremendous amount of punches thrown by both fighters. As the fight entered the second half, De La Hoya was landing punches and scoring point. Ruiz continued throwing blows, but De La Hoya’s defensive game was on point. Making use of the ring, De La Hoya continued mounting points in the later rounds, working behind a nice jab and landing some very effective combinations. The judges scored the bout 99-91 and 100-90 X 2, in favor of Diego De La Hoya.

The undercards:

D’Mitrius Ballard faced Adrian Luna in a 10 round fight for the vacant USNBC super middleweight title. The two wasted no time trading blows, it was apparent, this was going to be a good fight. A stunning right hand thrown by Ballard dropped Luna for a count in round 2, Luna would beat the count and recovered. In round 4, Luna came alive and unloaded a barrage of punches, pinning a shaken Ballard on the ropes. The battle continued going into round 6, both fighters entertaining the crowd with solid action. Ballard used the ring to his advantage while placing some heavy-handed blows on Luna. But Luna wouldn’t go away, in round 8 he gave Ballard a run for his money and almost dropped Ballard. Luna was a late replacement for this fight and for sure made this a great fight. Round 9 was all Luna, the Mexican fighter schooled Ballard for most of the round, landing the better punches. In the final and round, both fighters traded the entire round, simply a great fight to watch. The judges score the bout 97-92 and 95-94 X 2 in favor of D’Mitrius Ballard. The win awarded Ballard the vacant USNBC super middleweight title.

Joshua Franco needed 40 seconds to defeat Marco Sanchez, delivering a deadly left hook and dropping Sanchez to the canvas. A dazed Sanchez would not recover as the referee wisely waved off the super flyweight bout.

Jonathan Navarro went toe-to-toe with Ricardo Fernandez in a very entertaining super lightweight fight. Navarro, a heavy-handed puncher seemed to land the better of the throws. In the end, the judges score the bout 60-54 and 60-53 X 2.

In an 8-round lightweight bout, Roberto Manzanarez of Phoenix defeated Erick Martinez of Mexico. Without a doubt, Manzanarez has great skill in the ring and has a bright future in the ring. The judges score the bout all the same, 80-72 in favor of Manzanarez.